"Good heavens, a county commandant could be this brazen?!"
Yu Lü and Fang Xi were stunned when they heard this.
A Cultivated Talent held scholarly credentials and was a genuine man of letters. To put it bluntly, who among them lacked an examination patron or teachers at the County Academy or Prefectural Academy? Who lacked relatives and old friends? Whose circle did not include someone who had become a Provincial Graduate or even a Presented Scholar?
Generally speaking, unless a Cultivated Talent courted his own destruction, few county officials would humiliate him.
Did they no longer care about their reputations?
As they were thinking this, Shang the Cultivated Talent, seated opposite them, flung down his chopsticks and sprang to his feet. His eyes were normally rather small, but now they bulged, bloodshot and round as an ox's.
Neither Yu Lü nor Fang Xi thought his reaction excessive. After all, anyone who heard of such abuse directed at himself, his wife, and his daughter would surely be overwhelmed with grief and rage.
"Brother Shang, don't be afraid!"
Compared with Yu Lü, Fang Xi was more emotional. Filled with righteous indignation, he said, "The court has its laws. You hold scholarly credentials. Even if you have committed an offense, you cannot be humiliated like this. If that man truly behaves this way, the censor will not turn a blind eye!"
A censor was a local supervisory official of no great rank, generally only Principal Eighth Rank, lower even than a Seventh Rank county magistrate. Yet censors wielded the sharp sword of oversight and impeachment, so powerful officials and noble relatives feared them.
As Fang Xi reassured him, Shang the Cultivated Talent clenched both fists. Blood rushed to his face, turning it scarlet, and veins even bulged on his skin. After several ragged